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The  Moral  Damage  of  War 
to  the  School  Child* 


BY  REV.  WALTER  WALSH. 


English  was  the  poet  who  wrote,  but  universal  is  the 
principle  contained  in,  the  couplet, 

"  'T  is  education  forms  the  common  mind  ; 
Just  as  the  twig  ia  bent,  the  tree's  inclined." 

Speaking  from,  an  experience  as  an  administrator  of 
various  educational  bodies,  extending  over  many  years, 
recalling  the  sufferings  of  my  own  children  as  pupils  in 
the  public  schools  of  Scotland  during  the  period  of  the 
Boer  war,  and  after  careful  and  minute  collection  of 
facts  and  incidents  thoroughly  authenticated,  the  present 
speaker  undertakes  to  make  good  before  this  important 
congress  of  educationists  the  proposition  that  the  war- 
spirit  is  displayed  in  its  most  unnatural  and  revolting 
characteristics  by  the  moral  damage  it  inflicts  upon  the 
school  child.  Hideous  as  is  the  bodily  slaughter  of  our 
young  manhood  demanded  by  the  military  Moloch  upon 
the  field  of  battle,  more  abominable  still  is  the  sacrifice 
of  the  soul  of  childhood  in  the  school-room.  Indeed,  it 
is  the  demoralization  of  the  scholar  that  makes  possible 
the  destruction  of  the  soldier  and  the  devastation  of  the 
field.  Therefore  the  wounds  of  battle  can  be  staunched 
only  in  the  school-room.  Salvation  must  begin  with  the 
ABC.     Judgment  must  begin  at  the  schoolhouse. 

In  his  mysterious  "  Dream  Fugue,"  which,  like  the 
vision  of  a  later  Ezekiel,  ecstatically  pictures  the  thun- 
derous announcement  of  the  victory  of  Waterloo,  the 
rapt  De  Quincey  perceives  a  baby  in  the  path,  threatened 


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by  the  furious  Jehu  who  shakes  the  earth  in  his  zea'i  to 
break  the  news  of  battle,  and  the  terrified  seer  cries  aloud, 
"  O  baby !  shalt  thou  be  the  ransom  for  Waterloo  ?  Must 
we,  that  carry  tidings  of  great  joy  to  every  people,  be 
messengers  of  ruin  to  thee?" 

We  know  that  the  vision  was  a  reality.  The  soul  of 
the  child  is  the  price  we  pay  for  our  Waterloos. 

The  modern  spirit  is  increasingly  offended  by  a  dual 
morality  which  prescribes  one  law  for  the  individual  and 
another  for  the  community,  one  doctrine  for  the  church 
and  another  for  the  senate,  one  s^t  of  principles  for  a 
time  of  peace  and  quite  a  different  set  for  a  time  of  war. 
It  is  with  growing  discomfort  that  the  citizen  is  carrying 
around  the  modern  world  two  Sinais,  two  sets  of  com- 
mandments, or  perhaps,  more  correctly,  a  Sinai  in  one 
part  of  his  mind  and  a  Calvary  in  another,  this  incul- 
cating hostility  and  that  prescribing  benevolence,  to-day 
feeling  that  it  is  his  duty  to  die  for,  and  to-morrow  that 
it  is  right  to  kill,  his  enemy.  It  is  with  growing  uneasi- 
ness that  he  dedicates  one-half  of  his  life  to  Christ  and 
the  other  half  to  Cain,  printing  the  Golden  Rule  upon  one 
lobe  of  his  brain  and  the  lex  talionis  upon  the  other.  He 
is  Dr.  Jekyll,  the  pacifist,  and  Mr.  Hyde,  the  militarist, 
in  one  skin;  but  the  pacifist  is  steadily  absorbing  the 
militarist,  involving  him  more  and  more  in  the  pains  of 
death  and  the  terrors  of  judgment. 

The  demand  for  a  harmonious  and  coherent  ethic 
would  become  more  and  more  importunate  if  the  public 
mind  could  be  brought  to  realize  the  disastrous  effect  of 
dualism  upon  child  nature, —  how  it  splits  childhood  into 
halves,  giving  one-half  to  the  true  mother,  Humanity, 
and  another  half  to  the  false  mother,  Militarism;  how  it 
forces  the  half-conscious  soul  of  innocence  into  an  uneasy 
feeling  that  it  has  to  choose  between  the  "  gentle  Jesus  " 
oi  its  hymnology,  and  the  teacher  who  prescribes  such  a 
Dattle-song  as : 

"  We  talk  of  night  surprises, 
Of  sudden  fierce  attacks, 
Of  shooting  Indian  rebels, 
Of  bayoneting  blacks.'1 

Detailed  proofs  of  the  moral  damage  inflicted  upon  the 
school  child  by  the  war-spirit  become  visible  the  moment 


we  turn  our  eyes  to  the  sanctuary  of  the  class-room.    Take 
the  case  of  two  nations  actually  at  war  with  one  another. 
What  is  the  nature  of  the  instruction  imparted  respec- 
tively to  the  children  of  those  nations?     Almost  univer- 
sally, they  are  dosed  with  biased  comments  upon  past 
history  and  excited  diatribes  on  contemporary  combats. 
If  we  could  take  seats  in  such  a  class-room,  we  should 
not  unseldom  hear  a  narrow  provincialism  propounded 
in  the  name  of  patriotism  by  instructors  who  were  really 
partisans  masquerading  as  patriots.     Honorable  excep- 
tions, to  be  sure,  there  would  be;   but  the  prevailing 
temper  would   certainly  be  that  indicated   by  Herbert 
Spencer  in  his  "  Bias  of  Patriotism."     At  such  times  the 
usual  subjects  are  neglected  for  declamation  on  the  pass- 
ing incidents  of  the  campaign;  the  settled  findings  of 
history  are  forsaken  for  dilations  upon  the  distorted  and 
ephemeral  bulletins  from  the  front;  studies  of  historical 
characters  are  displaced  by  newspaper  sketches  of  the 
generals  in  the  field.     Essays  that  were  formerly  pre- 
scribed upon  the  nobler  themes  of  literature  now  turn 
upon  the  respective  characters  of  the  belligerent  peoples, 
the  enemy  being  represented  in  the  darkest  and  most 
slanderous  colors,  while  the  aggressive  people  are  painted 
as  the  bravest  and  most  virtuous  imaginable.     Sometimes 
the  school  song  is  turned  into  a  hymn  of  battle;  the 
drawing  lesson  is  a  caricature  of  the  enemy.     An  in- 
spector regales  a  public  meeting  with  the  pitiful  spite  he 
has  taught  an  innocent  child  to  set  down  in  its  essay. 

Lower  still  is  the  deep  in  which  the  school  child  is 
taught  that  it  is  base  to  think  his  country  to  be  in  the 
wrong,  treacherous  to  disagree  with  his  country's  quarrels, 
cowardly  to  grieve  when  a  large  number  of  the  enemy's 
men  are  killed  in  defending  their  own.  Lowest  of  all  is 
the  deep  in  which  the  infant  non-juror,  the  non-conform- 
ing pupil,  the  child  of  pacifist  parents,  is  insulted  in  the 
class,  persecuted  in  the  playground,  and  terrorized  by  the 
agents  of  a  militarized  government,  which  controls  both 
the  school  and  the  army,  and  is  fast  learning  to  bless  the 
day  it  was  driven  by  zealous  educationists  to  drill  the 
scholar  as  well  as  the  soldier. 

When  this  stage  has  been  reached,  the  children  will 
begin  to  understand  that  they  are  not  expected  to  apply 


to  international  relationships,  or  to  periods  of  war,  the 
ethical  principles  they  have  been  taught  in  the  Sunday 
school,  the  moral  instruction  class,  the  young  citizen- 
class  and  the  home.  They  will  know  that  these  princi- 
ples relate  only  to  personal  affairs  and  to  times  of  peace. 
They  will  recognize  that  the  arts  of  war  —  "  legitimate 
warfare  "  is  the  phrase  —  include  all  the  mean,  false,  cow- 
ardly and  unchivalrous  actions  they  have  been  taught  to 
despise  in  their  own  behalf,  such  as  stratagems,  ambushes, 
spying,  eaves-dropping,  hitting  from  behind  or  when  a 
fellow  is  down,  lying,  forging  letters,  telegrams,  signals 
to  mislead  the  enemy,  following  up  a  beaten  enemy  and 
hammering  at  him  with  cavalry  and  artillery  so  as  to 
annihilate  him ;  insisting  upon  the  severest  possible  terms 
of  surrender,  or  refusing  all  offers  of  surrender  with  the 
order,  "Take  no  prisoners."  They  may  perhaps  learn 
the  explicit  declaration  of  a  British  commander-in-chief, 
that  while  "Truth  always  wins  in  the  long  run"  and 
"Honesty  is  the  best  policy"  did  very  well  for  their 
school  copy-books,  they  are  not  to  be  acted  upon  in  war- 
time ;  and  they  will  rightly  conclude  that  the  same  actions 
which  are  counted  vicious,  cruel  and  disgusting  in  per- 
sonal affairs,  become  virtuous,  lawful  and  praiseworthy 
when  perpetrated  upon  a  national  foe. 

Who  can  wonder  if  they  not  unseldom  conclude 
that  all  they  wTrote  in  their  copy-books  is  open  to  the 
same  repudiation;  that  chastity,  justice,  truth-speaking, 
magnanimity,  commercial  integrity,  a  fair  day's  work  for 
a  fair  day's  wage,  are  equally,  under  special  conditions, 
subject  to  suspension  or  repeal?  Who  can  blame  them 
that,  being  taught  that  it  is  permissible  to  suspend  the 
decalogue  for  their  country's  sake,  they  afterwards  repeal 
the  Ten  Commandments  for  their  own?  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  is  it  not  certain  that  projection  of  the  fighting  ethic 
into  the  domestic  and  industrial  realm  is  the  principal 
cauee  of  poverty,  injustice,  disorder  and  the  principal 
hindrance  to  the  general  elevation  and  advance  of 
civilized  affairs? 

Why  are  we  so  foolish  as  to  think  we  can  gather 
grapes  from  thorns  or  make  silk  purses  from  sows'  ears  ? 
if  we  systematically  inculcate  two  contradictory  codes  of 
morality,  how  are  our  children  to  decide  which  code  to 


follow,  or  when  to  iollow  one  rather  than  the  other? 
Will  they  not  naturally  do  just  as  their  fathers  have 
done  before  them,  choose  the  "  line  of  least  resistance," 
and  follow  the  code  which  is  more  convenient  and  profit- 
able? Will  not  they  put  expediency  before  principle? 
Will  they  not  infer  that  the  religious  principle  can  be 
detached  from  whole  segments  of  life?  What  can  be 
more  confounding  to  the  moral  sense  of  a  very  young 
child  than  to  hear  a  teacher  commend  those  military 
operations  his  father  has  taught  him  to  abhor,  or  even 
insult  the  sentiments  his  mother  has  commanded  him  to 
reverence?  What  can  be  more  perplexing  than  this 
collision  between  home  and  school,  parent  and  teacher, 
nay,  between  teacher  and  teacher,  class  and  class,  book 
and  book,  subject  and  subject?  Those  who  have  seen 
the  pained  look  upon  a  child's  face,  the  excitement,  the 
resentment,  the  flush  of  injury,  and  noted  the  hardening 
effect  upon  the  child  mind,  will  understand.  To  tear  a 
child  limb  from  limb  would  hardly  be  more  cruel  than 
to  ravage  his  tender  soul  with  this  clash  of  ideals,  this 
conflict  of  authorities,  and  would  certainly  be  less  wicked. 
The  spectacle  of  the  war  demon  assiduously  poisoning 
the  well-heads  of  humanity  is  one  of  the  most  distressing 
that  can  afflict  the  thoughtful  mind.  To  instill  the  prin- 
ciples of  intellectual  atheism  into  his  pupils  would  be 
considered  a  thing  monstrous  and  unnatural  in  a  peda- 
gogue, but  is  it  any  nobler  to  sap  a  child's  faith  in 
morality,  truthfulness,  consistency?  Are  not  the  very 
bases  of  human  nature  shaken  when  we  teach  childhood 
that,  under  certain  conditions,  it  is  lawful,  even  laudable, 
to  kill,  lie,  steal,  boast,  slander,  glory  in  slaughter,  trample 
down  harvests,  burn  up  houses,  make  other  children 
fatherless  and  the  mothers  of  other  children  widows? 
is  not  this  to  filter  the  very  quintessence  of  immorality 
into  the  inner  soul  of  childhood?  Sang  William  Blake, 
the  gentle  author  of  the  "  Songs  of  Innocence  "  : 

"He  who  mocks  the  infant's  faith 
Shall  he  mocked  in  age  and  death  ; 
He  who  shall  teach  the  child  to  douhfc, 
The  rotten  grave  shall  ne'er  get  out." 


t> 


Is  it  not  possible  to  have  Blake's  seer's  vision,  and  dis- 
cern the  very  closest  connection  between  our  systematic 
demoralization  of  the  child's  mind  and  the  hideous,  abom- 
inable and  unnatural  conditions  which  prevail  between  the 
families  of  the  nations  ?  For  the  sake  of  some  imagined 
national  good,  we  are  plainly  consigning  the  childhood 
oi  tne  nation  to  a  moral  hell  of  hopeless  inconsistency ; 
we  are  prolonging  the  noxious  habit  of  double-niinded- 
ness  into  an  age  which  at  the  same  time  in  every 
department  of  its  affairs  cries  aloud  for  conciliation, 
reconcilement,  at-one-ment,  and  confesses  that  it  can 
find  happiness  and  universal  peace  only  in  unity  of 
thought,  of  motive  and  of  purpose. 

The  process  of  debauching  the  child  soul  in  order  to 
degrade  the  scholar  into  a  conscript  is  well  understood 
by  the  evil  power  that  sways  the  militarized  governments 
of  the  world,  whose  purposes  would  be  ill  served  by  the 
abolition  of  the  dual  code  of  ethics,  and  the  reign  of  the 
one  law  of  reason,  justice  and  love  over  the  political  as 
over  the  personal  affairs  of  life.  The  governments  that 
own  both  the  army  and  the  school  find  free,  universal, 
tax-supported  education  a  new  opportunity  for  developing 
their  military  resources.  Hence  the  encouragement  given 
to  rifle  brigades,  shooting  clubs,  cadet  corps,  and  military 
drill  of  various  kinds.  The  school-room  is  a  recruiting 
ground  for  the  army.  The  teacher  prepares  the  way  of 
the  recruiting  agent  and  the  drill  sergeant. 

The  friends  of  democracy  and  popular  education  have 
good  reason  to  bewail  this  unexpected  result  of  their 
splendid  struggle  for  universal,  state-aided  and  state- 
directed  schools ;  for  while  the  pioneers  aimed  at  making 
a  broad  road  from  the  school  to  the  university,  the  mili- 
tarist is  striving  more  and  more  to  transform  it  into  a 
highway  to  the  army.  Particularly  unhappy  would  it 
be  if  the  wistful  militarist  could  compass  his  end  in  the 
public  schools  of  the  United  States.  The  very  fact  that 
your  schools  are  international  in  the  truest  and  largest 
and  most  literal  sense  gives  the  American  teacher  an 
opportunity  unequaled  in  any  other  country  in  the  world. 
Into  your  seminaries  are  gathered  the  plastic  minds  of 
the  youth  of  all  nations,  first  of  all,  no  doubt,  that  you 
may  show  them  how  generous  and  hospitable  is  the  ideal 


of  American  citizenship,  but  also  that  you  may  furtner 
show  how  American  citizenship  itself  leads  up  to  a  citi- 
zenship of  the  world  yet  more  ample  and  fraternal. 

The  inevitable  result  of  our  dual  standard  of  ethics  is 
not  wholly  a  matter  of  speculation,  but  is  attested  by 
faces  tabulated  by  the  statistician,  and  which  the  ethicist 
finds  explicable  in  no  truer  way  than  has  been  indicated. 
It  is  noted  that  every  outburst  of  military  energy  is  fol- 
lowed by  an  increase  of  crimes  of  violence,  though  the 
limits  of  the  present  address  forbid  any  attempt  to  ex- 
hibit the  connection  of  warlike  operations  with  "juvenile 
crime "  committed  by  "young  offenders."  Even  in  the 
prison  cell  another  queer  paradox  must  puzzle  the  ex- 
scholar,  if  he  has  really  acquired  powers  of  reflection  — 
the  paradox,  namely,  that  a  government  should  clap  a 
lad  into  jail  as  a  criminal  for  doing  in  his  own  person 
that  which  in  the  school-room  is  praised  as  patriotism 
when  done  in  the  name  of  his  country. 

The  purification  of  public  ethics,  the  sweetening  of 
international  ethics  must  proceed  from  the  school-room. 
The  angel  of  mercy  must  smile  down  upon  guileless 
childhood  from  the  wall  of  the  schoolhouse  without  any 
suggestion  of  brazen  Mars  or  burning  Moloch  behind  the 
picture.  The  foul  vapors  from  the  field  of  carnage  must 
be  excluded  from  childhood's  temples,  that  the  flowers 
of  innocence  and  pity  may  acquire  a  heavenlier  lustre 
than  when  they  drooped  in  the  abodes  of  prejudice  and 
revenge.  The  old-time  brute  must  no  longer  be  per- 
mitted to  raven  the  evolving  angel.  The  future  human- 
ism must  not  longer  be  sacrificed  to  the  "  patriotism  "  of 
an  hour.  The  voice  of  childhood  must  be  universally 
raised  only  to  the  music  of  home  and  nature,  of  joy  and 
faith,  of  love  and  peace,  of  innocent  delights  by  stream 
and  meadow,  of  manly  enterprise  and  womanly  grace. 
Schools  and  schoolmasters  must  busy  themselves  to  sub- 
stitute the  principles  of  justice  for  the  prejudices  of 
patriotism  ;  to  exalt  reason,  moral  suasion,  magnanimity 
over  aggression,  intolerance  and  force.  The  history  book 
must  not  regild  the  faded  exploits  of  the  military  con- 
queror, but  proclaim  the  peaceful  heroisms  of  the  ex- 
plorer, philanthropist,  inventor,  savior  and  martyr.  The 
manslayer  must  become  the  villain,  not  the  hero,  of  the 


human  tragedy.  It  must  be  made  an  infamous  offense 
to  teach  a  child  to  despise  life  when  it  is  incarnate  in  a 
so-called  "  enemy."  No  longer  must  childhood  be  called 
upon  to  admire  "hell"  and  "the  sum  of  all  villainies," 
but  to  put  the  virtuous  who  retain  their  virtue  amid 
every  inducement  to  vice  far  above  him  who  merely  dis- 
plays brute  courage  against  odds.  Their  attention  must 
be  diverted  from  the  fighter  who  saves  his  life  by  taking 
the  life  of  another,  to  the  worker  who  cheerfully  dies  to 
save  a  mate  from  danger,  or  manfully  plies  his  tool  to 
minister  to  the  well-being  of  society. 

The  teacher,  particularly  the  woman  teacher,  will  be 
the  savior  of  the  child,  the  apostle  of  the  higher  civiliza- 
tion. In  proportion  as  unity  of  mind  and  motive  are 
produced  in  the  school-rooms  of  the  world,  the  unity  of 
peoples  will  organically  follow.  If,  as  has  been  said,  the 
battles  of  England  were  won  in  the  playground  of  Eton, 
the  war  against  war  will  be  won  in  the  6chool-rooms  of 
America. 

American  Peace  Society, 

Colorado  Building,  Washington,  D.  C. 


JaI  %j> 


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